The promotional benefits that the PG&E receives as part of the Giants sponsorship have also provided wonderful opportunities to welcome the company’s community partners to join in the excitement of the Giants experience. Last Saturday, PG&E continued that tradition by inviting representatives from Paradise Intermediate School to be honored in a Home Plate Ceremony that opened the Giants vs. Mets game at AT&T Park. It was Tim Lincecum Bobblehead Day at the ballpark and the stands were packed with eager fans excited about their new PG&E-branded bobbleheads.

During the Home Plate Ceremony, PG&E president Chris Johns presented Paradise Intermediate School teacher Greg Holman with the 2010 PG&E Solar Schools Inspirational Educator Award for his creative and dynamic approach to teaching the principles of renewable energy. They were accompanied by nine of Holman’s former students as well as Giants pitcher Barry Zito. Johns and Holman were each invited to throw out a ceremonial first pitch.

With the support of PG&E’s Solar Schools program, Holman has helped to create a model solar curriculum at Paradise Intermediate School. In 2006, a 1.06 kilowatt photovoltaic system was installed through a PG&E Solar Schools grant which now helps to power the school’s library and computer lab. In 2007, the school was awarded a PG&E Bright Ideas grant, which was used to purchase solar ovens. Paradise Intermediate School students have become so inspired by a sense of environmental and social responsibility that they are now raising money to purchase solar ovens for schools in Africa.

This event at the ballpark illustrates the best kind of sponsorship, that which brings corporate, cultural and educational institutions together in order to do good works and share a positive message with the community. The game proved to be a memorable experience for all involved—the students and teachers from Paradise Intermediate received a thrilling on-field experience for all of their energy-saving efforts; PG&E leadership enjoyed a positive public appearance with excellent hospitality and branding; and the Giants beat the Mets for the third straight day, 8-4. All in all, it was a perfect day at AT&T Park.

As major sustainability partner of Habitat for Humanity through the PG&E Solar Habitat Program, PG&E has donated more than $3.5 million and thousands of volunteer hours to the installation of solar panels on 280 Habitat for Humanity homes built in California over the past three years. We sought to bring this important sponsorship to life by telling the story of the partnership to the communities served by it.

On May 21st, PG&E volunteers installed solar panels on a home built by Sacramento Habitat for Humanity for a family in Sacramento. We invited local officials and the Sacramento River Cats, local minor league baseball team and fellow PG&E community partner, to be involved in the build. An informal media event included speeches by Habitat for Humanity local and international leadership, Sacramento RiverCats players, Councilmember Lauren Hammond, and local PG&E representative James Morante. Three media outlets, KCRA-3, KOVR-13, and FOX-40, covered the event.

That evening Sacramento Habitat joined PG&E for the Sacramento RiverCats game at Raley Field. PG&E’s sponsorship of the RiverCats provided an opportunity to share the Habitat for Humanity story with hundreds of local fans. A pre-game ceremony included a check presentation to Sacramento Habitat, a first pitch by a child from a Habitat-partner family, and a video board promotion with footage from the morning’s build. Habitat and PG&E shared a concourse booth at the main entrance to Raley Field, and live radio interviews were conducted with each partner. PG&E received excellent visibility via branded foul poles, recognition in a commemorative flip book, and email blasts. The RiverCats also provided a suite and tickets for PG&E, community leaders, and Habitat executives, volunteers and families.

This pair of events provided an opportunity for PG&E and Habitat for Humanity to tell the story of their valuable partnership to the community they both serve. By leveraging the relationships and assets of each partner, Habitat Sacramento and PG&E advanced their shared philanthropic cause and attracted the attention and goodwill of local government, media and the community.

Our client PG&E has taken a strong interest in participating in partnerships that highlight the importance of environmental action. One such partnership is with the San Francisco Giants, a fully integrated major sponsorship managed by our company for PG&E. In the past few years, PG&E has helped the Giants to install the first solar panels in Major League Baseball. PG&E has also helped the Giants to install energy efficient lighting at the ballpark, and has supported the opening of two energy efficient Green Garlic Fries concession stands. 

To coincide with Earth Day celebrations, the Giants announced last week that AT&T Park has received the U.S. Green Building Council’s Silver Certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). AT&T Park is the first Major League ballpark to receive this honor for an existing building.

This achievement speaks to the Giants’ commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and fighting climate change. In addition, it underlines the importance of PG&E’s creative sustainable partnership with the team.  By supporting its partner in going solar and reducing its energy use, PG&E helps the Giants to not only reduce the carbon footprint of AT&T Park, but also helps to make an impact on each and every Giants fan that passes through the ballpark and notices the energy innovations.

 When corporations and cultural institutions demonstrate their commitment to confronting the environmental challenges we all face, everyone benefits. We applaud the Giants for stepping up to that responsibility with the help of PG&E, and congratulate them for achieving the significant honor of LEED Silver Certification for AT&T Park.

And what better time than now to pay attention?  To quote Barbara Kingsolver in her article “Water is Life” for National Geographic, “We’ve lately raised the Earth’s average temperature by .74°C (1.3°F), a number that sounds inconsequential.  But these words do not: flood, drought, hurricane, rising sea levels, bursting levees.  Water is the visible face of climate and, therefore, climate change.”

The truth is that we should be paying closer attention than ever to this most precious of natural resources.  Though the majority of the earth is covered with water, only 2.5% is freshwater, and less than half of the freshwater is easily accessible.  Human water use has grown at an alarming rate over the past century.  The United Nations estimates that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in water-stressed regions by the year 2025 due to use, growth and climate change.  We need to learn, as a society and as individuals, how to use our water efficiently through better conservation, management and distribution.

Many major corporations used World Water Day this year as a springboard to launch powerful new initiatives aimed at reducing water consumption, improving water management, and providing safe access to clean water for those who need it most. 

• Kraft Foods’ Crystal Light partnered with the Nature Conservancy to raise awareness about the importance of our freshwater sources, donating 100 percent of net profits from Crystal Light  products sold on March 22 (up to $750,000).
• PepsiCo announced a goal to provide safe water access to three million people in developing companies by 2015.  As well, they have also set a goal of providing access to safe water to one million people by the end of 2010.  The company also announced that it would continue to work toward positive water balance in water-distressed areas.
• Not to be outdone, Coca-Cola announced an expansion of its global partnership with the USAID with a joint investment of $12.7 million.  This investment supports new programs throughout sub-Saharan Africa with four objectives: watershed management, water supply and sanitation, hygiene promotion, and productive water use.
• Nestle Waters announced that it would continue to provide water education to children in order to raise awareness about water resource management, hydration and health, and environmental stewardship.
• Dole introduced a new packing process aimed at major reduction of water use.  
• Dow, touting itself as “a global advocate for clean, drinkable water,” will continue its partnership with International Aid to provide water purification systems for 2 million people around the world, including those in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.   
• Intel has vowed to take a closer look at its own water practices, provide transparency about its water use, and preserve water quality in operation areas.

These are positive steps forward from some of the largest corporate players in the world.  “We are living in a time when global companies are rising up to become global citizens,” says Amir Dossal of the UN Office for Partnerships.  Major companies are beginning to understand that consumers want them to act responsibly on these issues.  As individuals we can take steps at home to reduce our own water consumption, but we must also continue to expect companies to provide products that have been produced and transported using the best water management, efficiency and conservation practices possible.   The more that corporations understand how important these issues are to their customers, the more they will invest in the kinds of practices that will ultimately shape a positive future for our planet and for humankind.  

To learn more about what you can do to manage water use and to help address the global water issues, check out these resources:

Save Our Water

Water- Use it Wisely.

Water for People

Global Water Challenge

Visit the World Affairs Council website for more information, and be sure to check out via webcast the panel “Post Copenhagen: Establishing a Global Climate Regime?” where speakers included Nancy McFadden, Senior Vice President for PG&E Corporation; Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Linda Adams of the California Environmental Protection Agency.  PG&E is certainly a target for criticism, but they are the leading utility in the country on the issue of climate change, strongly supporting AB 32 and federal cap-and-trade legislation.  Nancy is a dynamic speaker and made the most compelling case at the conference  for businesses to pay attention to this global issue.  Anyway, PG&E is to be applauded for their leadership on climate change – we need all other utilities to follow their lead.

No strangers to the art of sponsorship, the celebrated Northern California raceway is nevertheless breaking new ground.  In an industry that is not ordinarily thought of as being particularly “green”, there is plenty of room to make major strides in the right direction and educate hundreds of thousands of committed fans along the way.  With a steadily increasing variety of sleek and sexy alt-fuel performance vehicles, sustainable fuels and tires, and an increasingly aware public, it is only a matter of time before the entire motorsports industry jumps on the sustainably-powered bandwagon.

Infineon Raceway (IR) is well ahead of the curve, as it already conducts its business with a sense of environmental stewardship.  Located amidst the idyllic landscape of Sonoma County’s famous vineyards, IR’s venue design is environmentally conscious, right down to the natural land care provided by a flock of sheep that maintain the grounds.  Owl boxes offer pesticide-free rodent control, environmentally safe products are used for venue cleaning, and water is conserved by utilizing well systems.  IR has instituted an aggressive recycling program that includes all used tires, and a fleet of hybrid vehicles are used throughout the grounds.

Not content to stop there, IR has now entered the market seeking sponsorships and partnerships to help institute a range of hard-hitting sustainability actions around the venue.  First up is the installation of a highly visible solar power system to reduce grid-based power use, demonstrate the impact of solar, and provide a shade structure for fans.  We’ve been having some great conversations with some of the top solar installers and manufacturers in the industry, who stand to receive excellent visibility by helping to bring solar power to the raceway.  We’re also meeting with potential partners on a new solar-powered LED message board on heavily-traveled Highway 37.  This sign will positively impact IR’s energy usage while offering partners the benefit of high-profile branding to over 1.5 million cars per month.  Everyone wins—the raceway, the partners, and the public.

We have plenty more sustainability initiatives up our sleeve, including a Green Media and Business Center IT product showcase, collaborative transportation programs to reduce traffic, enhanced recycling programs, fan engagement programs, and alternative energy vehicle demos and races.  IR will kick that off this year with an all-electric motorcycle race at the AMA Pro Road Racing TTXGP U.S. Championships in May.  Stay tuned for more news as this exciting Sustainable Sponsorship program unfolds!

Building upon a successful track record of producing the leading sustainable building conference in the country, West Coast Green is now applying its extensive experience and team of skilled practitioners to offer clients support in addressing their greatest green strategic challenges.  We look forward to helping WCG to increase its service offerings to include the development and design of sustainable education programs; experiential programs to promote green brands; new programs designed to accelerate the adoption of emerging sustainability-related technologies; sustainability summits and design charettes; webinars and white (“green”) papers; and customized programs for a variety of sustainability-minded companies and organizations.

This new alliance extends both BSS’ and West Coast Green’s capacities, serving as a catalyst for increasing our activity and impact in green building, sustainable sponsorship – and beyond.

On the other hand, the meeting brought to life the extreme challenge we face with this issue.  The wide range of organizations represented are all working on various programs to address environmental issues, though there is no clear connection between most of them, resulting in inefficiencies, overlap and more of a shotgun approach to solving this challenge.  During a breakout session, each of the ten or so tables of participants was asked to identify the biggest needs and possible solutions to the issue at hand.  At our table, it quickly became clear that coordination and collaboration are sorely lacking and greatly desired.   So many municipalities and government agencies are having to do more with less, and need to find ways to combine efforts to learn from one another and to maximize impact.

Thus, what is really needed, now more than ever, is partnership.  There is power in partnership – two organizations working together can accomplish much more than they can individually, and multiple organizations collaborating can do exponentially more.  Structure and facilitation is needed and organizing takes time – but without some form of formal collaboration, the inefficiencies and lack of focus will at best waste a lot of time and money and, at worst, be the undoing of the movement.

And, of course, the same type of coordination is needed to address other major issues facing humanity – hunger, poverty, health care, water – all call for collaboration and formal partnership, and government cannot always step in and play that connecting role.  While a mass amount of conscious and consistent individual acts will be required to move the needle on climate change and other major global challenges, partnership among organizations actually charged with creating necessary change needs to accelerate.

So where does sponsorship come into play?  When developed and implemented effectively, major sponsorships are a form of partnership as each participant gives and gets according to the needs and capabilities of their organization.  Sponsorships can help drive the partnership-oriented organizations that are needed to address the monumental challenges we face, and I believe that we will increasingly see practices like sponsorship and strategic alliance facilitation as being prominent drivers to move the needle in the right direction.  For people working in the sponsorship profession and related lines of work, this provides a great opportunity to apply what you do to help address major issues on both a global and community level, in whatever form possible.  In coming blogs, I’ll explain how we are trying to do so here, from our humble headquarters in Novato, California.  Wishing you peace for the holidays – Kevin

PG&E's Andrew Tang at Greentech Media's Networked Grid event, 11/04/09

Having attended a major Smart Grid conference this week at PG&E and preparing to attend a convening of Climate Bay Area next week, I am struck by the critical need for collaboration among corporations, government, NGOs and media to solve the epic challenges facing humanity. It is at once encouraging to see so many companies and organizations come together in an effort to address the intertwined issues of energy management and climate change – and simultaneously mind boggling as to how we are going to come up with clear solutions anytime soon.

Of course, a challenge can often be best viewed as an opportunity and that is how we are approaching our work in this sector. Partnerships involving people and organizations from the public and private sectors need to be developed and managed in order to make quantum leaps in the re-creation of our energy infrastructure and in diminishing greenhouse gas emissions. While this work is not technically “sponsorship”, we are deploying our skills at partnership facilitation and program design to do our little part in addressing these global challenges.

We are launching this new website and establishing relative social networking actions to actively share information from the front lines of the sustainability movement with a particular focus on how to use the principles of sponsorship and integrated marketing to move the needle toward having a healthy environment and a prosperous society. Join us for the journey as we work hard to make a difference while serving the needs of our clients and their partners.

 The last couple of years have given us the amazing opportunity to work deep inside one of the most environmentally responsible companies in the country, Pacific Gas and Electric. We have been charged with the responsibility of helping PG&E’s executives develop sponsorships and related programs that assist their partners in genuinely going green while promoting green actions to their audiences. This work will continue through 2010, though we are now also applying our sponsorship development skills in working with other organizations seeking to promote socially responsible practices, community engagement and, of course, sustainability.

With this new website, we’ll actively blog, share updated case studies and connect to our social media sites where we will interact with those interested in developing new sponsorship programs, events and other initiatives that promote socially responsible actions. Our goal is to help spread the word about the best marketing partnerships driving social action so that others can learn and apply best practices to their own cause-oriented programs.

Meanwhile, we are very busy with our ongoing work with PG&E and dozens of partner organizations, continuing our support of their sustainability programs and green events. We are also starting some exciting work with Infineon Raceway, helping their leadership develop a sustainable sponsorship program for their state-of-the-art Sonoma-based race venue. We will have regular announcements of new programs and projects so stay tuned and keep visiting. Thank you for taking time to check in with BSS!